What is the difference between width and base

Some online vendor of sinks will call the front-to-back distance the width; others, the left-to-right distance.

Phineas Jan It is a shame. There's an endless supply of self-satisfied fools in charge of education, and in charge of testing that education. The goal appears to be to ask the question is the minimum number of words, as though "question space" on the printed page is something of supreme importance.

Rich Byrne Jan If you are talking about a rectangle, which is usually represented in a sort of landscape orientation, and describing the dimensions as width and length, it is only natural to use "length" to reference the longer side. It would be odd to have the shorter side described as length. This seems to me to be simply a convention in geometry. It doesn't have to make sense with English, Merriam-Webster or any other source.

It just needs to be internally consistent within Geometry and to make sense with the terms that are chosen for the shapes. True, you can make a case that "width" doesn't appear to be used well here, but if it is paired with "length," I don't see a way around this outcome. Be comforted by the fact that this is walled off from the rest of the language and should cause no one any serious difficulty. You might make a similar a similar complaint in graphing with the term "rise over run.

But there is no mistaking what rise is on a graph. Perhaps the confusion here CAN bleed into the "real" world. There are times I have been confused about a product description, for example, when two dimensions are simply described as a number by another number, such as mm x mm. Obviously a square, but if the numbers aren't equal, you might have to surmise what side the longer number refers to. I am sure there have been other instances. What I find is that the confusion is only me.

The people in that business use these numbers all the time and there is no question about them. It helps me to get someone on the phone and discuss the product so I can become familiar with their jargon.

Hello, Math tutor here. I grew up in the British system of education however I now live in the U. I was horrified when I saw a teacher labeling the shorter side of a rectangle as the length and the longer side as the width. I learned exactly what the Oxford Dictionary states: width is the lesser of 2 sides. British issue. Do you have a question?

Submit your question here. Width is considered as the shortest estimate of a factor. Width can be used to see how broad an object or how prolonged merchandise can be. The most important unit used to measure width is the meter m. Very small distances can be estimated using a millimeter mm and to calculate large distances kilometers km are used as units to calculate the width. Width is the horizontal side of the plane.

Width is said to have no ambiguity. Width can likewise mean telling someone how wide an object is. If an object has two dimensions, then the length and width are both necessary to calculate the area or the perimeter of the object, for example, a rectangle has two dimensions i.

When one tries to quantify an object, they begin by finding out the width of the object. The smallest distance of an object is considered as the width of the object. Width always measures how intensive an object is considered. In geometry, when we estimate the periphery of an entity we always look at the two most essential parameters — their length and their width. Both these measurements are not the same and require certain details to be precise about before concluding which term is applicable for which side of the entity.

This article brings about these very details and highlights the meanings of both the terms along with their features. It discusses how length is referred to as the greater distance of measurement from one side to another side and how width refers to how wide an entity from one side to another side estimating across the entity at 90 0 angles to the longer side, i.

Skip to content In the study of Geometry, the vital parameters which help outline the models are length and width. Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects. MLA 8 ,. When the size of an advertisement is refered to there is no ambiguity. All over the world it is hight multiplied by width — where height is the verticle axis top to bottom or north to south and width is the horizontal axix left to right or east to west. I am trying to understand the difference between the height of an object and the length.

High is best applied to a 3 dimentional figure or to notate the high versus the base of a triangle. It seems that there is not clear convention about when to call a side the lenght or width. However, I think it is easier to just call the longest side the lenght and the shortest side the width. Generally, height is used when dealing with a 3-dimensional object, taking the place of length or depth.

In 2-dimensonal objects, length generally refers to the longest side of a shape, but does not always, and width is usually the side that is not called length. The length of a rectangle is 2m less than the length. The area of the rectangle is 48 meter square. Find the dimension of the rectangle. The measurement of a square object one side being longer than the other do you go width The shortest side and length The longest side when writing down the measurements?

A square can only have all sides to be equal. That is why the area of a square is 4 multiplied by one side We usually call this side the length. The measurements of an 8 cup measure is 9. Does that mean the height is 9.